During a contentious panel on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) found himself at odds with his fellow panelists — and with the facts — about Social Security’s solvency. Johnson and fellow panelist Rep.

Greg Russak's insight:

Capping payroll taxes for incomes above $113,700 for 2013 (http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/payroll/tax/wagelimits/index.html) simply means that most of us pay FICA tax on every single dollar we make, while people like Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, who made salary and cash bonuses of $5,000,000.00 in 2011 (total comp was $16million) paid his 4.2% FICA that year in less than 2 hours into 2011.

The struggle for civil and human rights did not begin 50 years ago, and it will not end in another 50. It is a centuries-long story of advance and retreat.

And that’s the lesson. The movie’s over, but not The Movement. It is left to us to march over the bridge again. And again. And again.

Greg Russak's insight:

"Meet the New Jim Crow. Fifty years ago, African-Americans were kept from the polls by the threat of beatings and lynchings. Today, Jim Crow has traded in his white sheets for spreadsheets. He’s Dr. James Crow, systems analyst. His method is lynching by laptop."

For a second year in a row, the Conservative Action Political Conference hosted a debate on the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. This morning, in a stinging rebuke similar to audience jeering of former Gov. Jim Gilmore’s seething criticism of Ed Snowden at last year’s CPAC, former NSA director Michael Hayden received an earful when he>>

Greg Russak's insight:

How gullible do you have to be to believe this guy?

"Hayden is a principal with the Chertoff Group, a consulting firm for the multi-billion dollar cybersecurity and intelligence industry. He is also on the board of Alion Science and Technology, a military contractor that does intelligence and techical work. For that part-time gig he has been paid approximately $336,500 over the last four years, according to reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission."

"But then, that's why Obama Derangement Syndrome is different than Bush Derangement Syndrome: it's not really about Obama's presidency. It's about Obama himself. It's about his blackness, his father's foreignness, his strange name, his radical pastor. Obama's presidency is in many ways ordinary, but the feelings it evokes are not."

Private probation companies charge excessive fees to low income people who can't pay small fines like traffic tickets. If they can't pay, they go to jail. SU...

Greg Russak's insight:

Is this what we are becoming; a nation which glorifies money and all things privatized to the degree that being poor becomes a crime and where people profit from the poverty and incarceration of others?

"...it's easy to forget it all began with Poitras... the first person Snowden made contact with." That's CBC News referring to Laura Poitras, the journalist and filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated documentary Citizenfour, which offers a look at NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's first meetings with journalists.

The message is simple: 1) Corporations are not people and 2) Money is not speech. (37900 signatures on petition)

Greg Russak's insight:

Our representatives spend up to half their day raising money for re-election rather than representing 'we the people.' As a result, the microscopic fraction of the American population who can afford to donate gobs of cash are granted undue access and influence. That's why we have got to get money out of politics.

The 2016 election might be the first $5 BILLION presidential election. That is a staggering figure. We must stand together to put the power back in the vote, not the dollar. We will not stand for any more greed, and we will not stand for big money determining the present and future of our country. It's time to take democracy back.

Headed by Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, we are an open source tactic that supports local and state campaign finance reform, national reforms and a constitutional amendment that states: 1) Corporations are not people and 2) Money is not speech.

Please join us by signing this petition in support of a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and get big money out of politics!

Robert Reich had this to say about a New York Times article, "Auto Industry Galvanized After Record Recall Year" His closing question got me thinking about the corruption of money in our news and i...

Greg Russak's insight:

These lies are just what those in power count on us to believe. It’s what makes you and I precisely the audience Big Money wants – a divided populace who is willfully ignorant, woefully misinformed, eager to vote against their own self-interests, and who refuses to unify against them.

If and when we do, we’ll actually have a democracy. Until then, look around. This is what we have because it’s precisely what we deserve.

Keep this one handy for the next time someone claims that we're a Christian nation and always have been. It will also be useful in helping your libertarian friends and family to understand a bit more of that movement's history; i.e., how they are actually in many ways the spawn of an ugly marriage between corporatists who were losing the public relations battle with progressives and religious leaders like Pat Robertson who gladly became their toadies by cherry-picking the Bible in order to justify greed, corruption, and the treatment of other human beings as disposal assets. You know. Objectivism.

If all you did was scan headlines or look at memes, you could be excused for thinking that Republicans were completely absent this weekend from Selma. You'd be wrong. CNN originally reported... Sen...

Greg Russak's insight:

The question of who attended and who skipped Selma struck me as a very good example of why it’s so important to get past headlines and to essentially ignore memes altogether as primary sources of information.

"Meet The Press" is one of the oldest and most-respected news shows on TV. It's been around for over 60 years, and yet, it turns out that it's COMPLETELY use...

Greg Russak's insight:

Looks like I made the right choice swearing off of Sunday morning talk shows. I refuse to even call them news programs. This clips helps to explain why.

For those who missed it, Chuck Todd is the poor excuse for a journalist who famously said, "What I always love is people say, 'Well, it's you folks' fault in the media.' No, it's the President of the United States' fault for not selling it" about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Environmental, labor, and community groups are organizing rallies, public forums, and creative direct actions this week urging their congressional representatives to say "no" to a renewed bid to rush through the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership "trade" deal by passing "fast track" legislation.

Greg Russak's insight:

"Senate Finance Committe Chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is saying he wants to reintroduce Fast Track legislation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) this month — right after Members of Congress return from the Presidents Day recess," explains Citizens Trade Campaign, referring to legislation that would allow the Obama administration to avoid transparency and full congressional review of the deal. "Now’s the time to tell Congress: no Fast Track for the TPP!"

For decades, corporations have found Republicans ready to do their bidding thanks to a shadowy outfit known as ALEC. But Nick Rathod, a preacher's son, has a plan to fight back.

The State Innovation Exchange, SiX, is a new “action tank” that aims to achieve long-term progressive policy gains in states and localities across the US. Elected officials and staff across the country are writing legislation that will shape America's future. SiX provides trusted, expert resources to inform and enhance that work, building the legislative wing of the progressive movement. SiX aims to encourage cross-pollination among states, providing a platform for the best ideas to spread and grow. The group is an ally in tough fights, and it provides cover in places where its resources make the biggest impact.

With a SiX account, users can access a legislative library, follow the activity of key legislators, and track issues as they evolve in each of the states. It’s an unprecedented set of tools designed to ensure the best thinking on current issues is used to advance progressive legislation in all 50 states.

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